Published June 3, 2024
The Politics Out of Schools Act (POSA) discourages politically-motivated mass student walk-outs in K–12 public schools. The increasingly common practice of excusing or even encouraging large scale political walk-outs puts public schools in the position of endorsing some causes over others. Excused walk-outs are thus a form of indoctrination. Political walk-outs subject uncommitted students to ideological pressure from administrators, teachers, peers, and outside groups. Protest walk-outs divide schools, endanger student safety, and threaten schools with significant liability issues. Undisciplined walkouts also teach students that rules can be broken with no consequences. This sets students up for still more lawless actions once they get to college.
The Supreme Court, in Tinker v. Des Moines, affirmed students’ right to protest at school by wearing armbands, message T-shirts and the like. Yet the Court also affirmed the right of schools to regulate for basic order and attendance, so long as ideologically-based violations of the rules are disciplined no more severely than non-ideological violations.
Consistent with this, POSA does three things. First, it forbids schools in a given state from issuing excused absences for political protest and lobbying. Second, it prohibits school standards, curriculum, regulations, or teacher-training materials from promoting or permitting student walk-outs for purposes of political protest or lobbying. Third, it ensures that unexcused absences for purposes of political protest or lobbying are treated no differently from other instances of truancy. However schools treat a day of truancy—be it with detention, a brief suspension, or a mark on a student’s record—that is how political walk-outs will be dealt with. This law might not end all school walk-outs, but it will surely make them less frequent and extensive.
The Politics out of Schools Act
WHEREAS, true civic education is not political action itself but rather preparation for, and prerequisite to, mature political life; and
WHEREAS, respect for the liberties of students and teachers, the views of a politically diverse citizenry, and the tradition of institutional political neutrality that flows from these, means that political activism has no place in formal education; and
WHEREAS, granting excused absences for political student walk-outs invites political favoritism from school districts and places inappropriate political pressures on non-participating students, neither of which have a place in the public education system of [state name]; now, therefore,
BE IT ENACTED:
SECTION A:
(1) Excused absences from school for purposes of political protest, social or public policy advocacy, or attempts to influence legislation or other governmental policymaking at the local, state, or federal level shall not be granted in [state name].
(2) Neither academic standards, nor teaching standards, nor education standards of any kind, nor curriculum, nor teacher professional development, nor regulations in [state name] shall promote or permit student walk-outs for purposes of political protest, social or public policy advocacy, or attempts to influence legislation or other governmental policymaking at the local, state, or federal level.
(3) Unexcused absences for purposes of political protest, social or public policy advocacy, or attempts to influence legislation or other governmental policymaking at the local, state, or federal level shall be treated as acts of truancy and shall not be treated in a manner that is different from other acts of truancy.
DEFINITIONS:
(1) “School” means K–12 public school.
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Beyond his work with Education and American Ideals, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates on a wide range of issues from K–12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
